Sweeten-Shults: Why has 'My Little Pony' corralled my grown Bronies?

Boys will be boys — unless they like to watch an animated show about sparkling, pastel-colored ponies.

Then they're Bronies, a whole subculture of fanboys — and not just boys, but teenagers and 20-, 30- and 40-year-old men, too — who love "My Little Pony." Not the first-generation of "My Little Pony" from the 1980s, but the fourth-generation of the cartoon, which has been around since 2010.

You would think, since even manly men have embraced "My Little Pony," that it must be a similarly manly show, with muscles and cars, weaponry and jujitsu in tow. But you would be wrong. This is a girly-girl-girl show, one originally intended for the toddler, preschool and elementary-aged little girl crowd. It touts characters, after all, named Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash — characters who are sparkly, flutter their big, bright shining eyes, are pastel-colored and love rainbows and flowers.

The ponies also promote friendship in Ponyville, thus the subtitle of the show, "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."

So I am flabbergasted by this turn of events, this pop culture pickle, this animated gender bender.

If you doubt the pop culture phenomenon of the Brony, just go into a comic book shop; walk through any mall, where you're likely to encounter one or two fans donning their Brony T-shirts (with pride); go online where the Brony community gathers to watch fan-made videos or look at fan-made Brony artwork; or buy your tickets and head to BronyCon 2013 in Baltimore, a Brony convention (one of many) where the largest Brony concert, BronyPalooza, is planned (think bands like OmniPony, BronyMike and Equestrian Strumpet).

Or, you can just stop by my house.

Two Bronies occupy it, one of them ready to head to college, the other who is simply adding "My Little Pony" fandom to his previous repertoire of "Yu-Gi-Oh," "Transformers" and "Iron Man." They love Twilight Sparkle, Big Macintosh and Applejack (ponies from the "My Little Pony" repertoire) just as much as their cousin, who is 12, wore his Brony shirt to the mall and got a high-five from some 20-year-old Army servicemen who also were Bronies.

I don't know about you, but this whole Brony phenomenon feels like something is off.

It's a head-scratcher that preteen and teenage boys would be fans of a show about friendship-loving ponies. And it seems particularly troublesome that grown men would love the show — and would readily admit it.

While it's perfectly fine that boys embrace characters like Pinkie Pie — plenty of girls love comic books, after all, and Legos are now being marketed to girls as toymakers blur the gender lines in toys — still, for the older fanboys, the 20-year-old and 30-year-old men, to be into the show so much is, frankly, a little disturbing.

What happened to the time when guys were afraid of the color pink?

What happened to the time when they wouldn't dare be seen with anything sparkly, glittery or pastel-colored?

What happened to the time when guys liked "The Incredible Hulk" — you know, when "Hulk smash!" and "Hulk smash puny humans!!!" was the call of the day.

What happened to the time when boys would be boys and men would be men? You know, the time before Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie?